brywool Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Hi, I use a Fender HR Deville with Strats & Rics. I've used the HD500 for a few years now with my Variax but have never been that happy about the distortion with my standard guitars. Just seems limp and without punch. The Variax I would continue to use with one of my bands, but for my other band I've been screwing around with just using my amp's distortion and just switching channels (clean/dirty/lead). I gotta say that I really like the sound of just an amp running in this way. My problem is, I'd like to be able to use the delays, wahs, volume pedal, etc. (not to mention the tuner!) that the HD500 has but also be able to switch the channels on the amp without the HD500 affecting the sound. Being that my amp doesn't have any, I can't use the HD500 to swap amp channels (right?). The 4Cable thing might work, but one catch is that I use an attenuator on my EFX loop presently because the Devilles are super loud. I'd have to take that out of the mix to do the 4Cable thing and I'd have to have my amp channel switching pedal next to the HD500 (basically adding more stuff... grr). Is that a correct assessment or is there a way that the HD500 can do the switching that I am missing? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brywool Posted February 5, 2017 Author Share Posted February 5, 2017 Thanks Guru. Interesting. So I can either have the amp's channel foot switch next to my HD500, or I can spend and add the voodu and have that hooked to the amp. Okay, that keeps my floor more clean if I go that route. I DID try hooking up the 4 cable method. With this, I can get NEARLY what I want. Because of the FX loop parameters, I'm getting a huge hum. If I tweak them, I can ditch the hum, but I lose the sound I want. If I run without the HD500 there at all, I get the sound I want but no effects. It sucks because other than the hum, it would totally work. I just can't find the hum. If I unplug the guitar, no difference. If I unplug the HD500 from the Effects Loop, the hum cleans right up. When I normally go into the front without the 4 cables, I don't have this issue. Clean as a whistle. Going into the Effects loop gives me a ton of hum. Seems like it might be grounding on the HD500, but the plug doesn't have a ground and the ground lift is only on the XLR jacks (?). Confused on how to make this work. I've seen more than a few threads on this and see that people have the same issue. I have yet to see a solution. Darn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brywool Posted February 5, 2017 Author Share Posted February 5, 2017 Looks like adding a second noise gate fixed the hum, or seems to have. I've never had more than 1 in the chain before. Thanks for the help. It seem to be such a fatter sound on both the clean and the dirty. I'm not wild about shelling out $130.00 for the voodoo switch, so I may just lug the amp channel switch with me (grr). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceatl Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Still $100 or so, but you could use a Midi Solutions Relay perhaps...Same size as a direct box and midi powered. You can program it to switch on the PC or CC you want... http://www.midisolutions.com/prodrel.htm They also have an 8 channel model I think... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil6_7 Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 I use this and it's worked great for me so far. http://www.nuxefx.com/show-9-243-1.html Got it for about £25. I know this isn't much help but I don't have a hum problem and use the 4 cable method with no noise gate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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